Ryo Kawano

Ryo Kawano (河野 亮)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 200 lb.

• High School Nihon University Fujisawa High School

• Born May 3, 1971 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ryo Kawano played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 7 years.

Kawano signed with the Yakult Swallows in 1989, and he played 89 games with a .202/.279/.284 batting line for the Salinas Spurs in 1991. He only got 11 at-bats combined for the big club in his first six seasons, and he led the Eastern League with 19 homers and 82 RBI in 1995. Kawano also broke the JPEL record for most RBI in a season. The Swallows then traded him with Shikato Yanagita to the Daiei Hawks for Kazuya Tabata and Shinichi Sato after the 1995 season, and he crushed 7 homers with a .254/.314/.405 batting line in 67 games in 1996, backing up Hiroshi Fujimoto at 1B. Kawano slumped to .218/.261/.406 in 1997, and he recorded a .255/.361/.392 batting line in 61 plate appearances in 1998.

The Hawks then sent him to the Chunichi Dragons for Yusuke Torigoe, and he went 2-for-8 in 1999. He also led the Western League in homers that season, and he was the first player to lead in homers for both minor league in NPB history. Kawano was traded with Takatoshi Kishikawa to the Orix BlueWave for Taira Suzuki, but he only played 7 games in 2000, and he announced his retirement. He was the minor league batting coach for the Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2015 to 2018, and he became the batting coach of the Chiba Lotte Marines from 2019 to 2022. He later scouted for the Yokohama BayStars, signing Taiki Ishikami, Hiromi Katayama, Kentaro Shinogi, Haruto Shoji and Riku Takeda.

Overall, Kawano hit .234/.297/.401 with 93 hits and 17 homers in 397 plate appearances spead over 7 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan